Torn apart by a political crisis and surrounded by armed conflicts, Lebanon will become the next target for ISIS and other terrorists, said Foreign Minister Nohad Machnouk. Earlier this week, 28 were charged with planning suicide attacks.

"We must admit that what has happened in Iraq has caused
great excitement among these groups that believe they can benefit
from the Iraqi experience," the Sunni Muslim politician told
Reuters.

"They think they can carry out similar operations in Lebanon.
But so far, in the last two months, it is clear that the security
awareness has been able to obstruct this. Yet, the danger of
bombings is still there.”

Security agents have captured suspected terrorists at several
locations, though only seven of the 28 targeted ISIS members have
been detained so far. The arrests came after a botched raid in a
Beirut hotel three weeks ago resulted in injuries to three
policemen when a Saudi terrorist detonated a bomb, just as agents
burst through the door of his room. ISIS took responsibility for
the incident, terming it a “suicide attack.”

The recently-renamed Islamic State has already declared a Sunni
caliphate in its controlled territories in Iraq and Syria, but in
its previous incarnation intended to conquer the entire Levant,
which includes Lebanon.

"I think this is their first official, documented
appearance," said Machnouk, who insisted that police
uncovered the cell before it received specific instructions to
carry out acts of violence, and claims the current ISIS presence
in the country consists of “individuals and not more."

The problems are exacerbated by political turmoil in Lebanon,
which went without a government for a year until February, has
still not held presidential elections scheduled for May, and is
ruled by a parliament whose mandate expires in August.

The country’s demographics are inherently problematic – 40
percent of the population is Christian, and the rest Sunni and
Shia in equal proportions – but tensions have multiplied
many-fold since the outbreak of violence in neighboring Syria
more than three years ago.

The spillover of the conflict has not only resulted in localized
fighting, but in a flood of refugees the country can ill-afford
to sustain. The UN recently announced that by the end of the year
1.5 million refugees – a third of the country’s population, and a
higher ratio than any other country in the world – will live in
Lebanon, not only those from Syria, but also Palestine and Iraq.

Meanwhile, Machnouk admitted that there is no immediate
resolution of the political standoff in a country, where top
posts are meted out to the different religions according to a
decades-old agreement.

"The presidential election is a regional and international
decision that has so far not been made and will not be made in
the near term," he said. "It is linked to all the
developments in the region: the situation in Iraq,
American-Iranian negotiations, the possibility of Saudi-Iranian
negotiations, many things."

And while battling against imported terrorism (though Lebanon
also suffers plenty of homegrown violence) has united all the
factions, the in-fighting may make it difficult to overcome it,
particularly as thousands of people continue to uncontrollably
cross the border each day.